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We have a very similar sculpture on the waterfront in Saint Petersburg. They have something like that in practically every city I've been in. I'm trying to wonder when they were edgy in the non-literal sense. The 70's maybe?

These seem to be their redeeming qualities: they're something to look at, they don't cost much (cheap), and they're big.

OK, since I can be sharp-edged and yet dull-witted, allow me to advance a little theory that I've been working on:

You remember "The Usual Suspects"? The hook was that the meek, timid Kevin Spacey turned out (spoiler alert, for the 12 people on earth who haven't yet seen it) to be Keyser Soze, a criminal mastermind of legendary fiendishness.

Here's my theory: The commenter we know as Freeman Hunt is an actual Keyser Soze.

Freeman Hunt is the reason that small children are afraid of the dark. And I'm not sure, but Paddy O might be her accomplice /evil sidekick.

Now, my evidence at this point is sketchy. But I'm working on a very convincing graph in green crayon plotting the frequency of acts of evil before Freeman Hunt's birth, and afterward. I call it "the hockey stick of malevolence" (aka The Stick of Claude Lemieux). Come to think of it, I bet that bastard Lemieux is involved too, part of their gang.

Slowly, toward the north, where the white shapes assemble;And do they share a truth, or do they jostle and dissemble?It matters not surrounded by that solitude of stripped down space; It matters only that they fully occupy their place.

There is nothing more invigorating than standing on Lake Michigan's shoreline in January or February with a brisk northeast wind blowing and waves crashing around you. Then you go somewhere and get a hot drink. Perfect.

MM: last time I stayed at the Pfister, I stooped to pet a cute beagle in the lobby while checking in. Only later at the Brewers game did I find out that the dog was Westminster Grand Champion Uno, there to throw out the first pitch. Oh, and the Cincinnati Reds were there too. Whatever.

I don't know why I didn't think of California Dreamin' the first time I saw that image, but now I am thinking of it.

____

I'm playing it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0UcQDUR-fU) now.

To me, it doesn't work.

Here's what comes up for me when I think of that song, and this might date me. 1978. December, mid December, out in the park just got finished smokin with friends, sittin up in a public structure (the castle), walking around. Leaves blowing round. Most have fallen off the trees, but a few linger. Down vests. Sheep lined collars, cordoroys. Suede shoes.

This picture is January, not in any place that's remotely temperate like California or the south. This picture doesn't have a trace memory of warmth.

Northwestern campus is on the Michigan lakefront AND has several sculptures. When I was a student walking along the lakefront on a typically windy, cold and exceedingly gray day the sculptures felt oddly "dead". (they were all "modern" too)

Maybe it was because the backdrop of the winter lake was cold and forbidding like...